11.7. Mendocino and Redwoods

This morning we actually managed to get up just a little bit earlier. I got up special-early so I could get my emails done before everyone else got up. It was a beautiful and quiet, yet very cold morning in Cloverdale.
After that, we went towards Van Damme State park, on the coast, on a very windy highway. Since everyone was complaining that the drive was too long (after 45 minutes), we turned into the winery at Maple Creek, where I purchased what is likely to be the most expensive whine of my life so far (30 USD). But considering that going up Coit Tower was also 21 USD, it wasn´t all that bad.
After that (and returning, because Selmita forgot her glasses there), we went all the way to Highway One again. While everyone else was sleeping (and Markus reading in the bed, which he actually did all day long), Klaus enjoyed the redwood groves, particularly at Navarro River, highly recommendable!
In Van Damme State Park, the kids and Klaus went on a Kayak ride in the Pacific Ocean. It was really, really great and a lot of fun. We went through a couple of caves, through Kelp forests and passed a few seals at an arm´s length.

A wonderful serving of Flautas later, we continued to Mendocino, hoping to grab a coffe at a local coffee shop, but even though we tried, we could not really find an appealing coffee shop, even though Mendocino is of course a very charming little town. But seems like art and B&Bs are more important here than coffee.
We also missed the opening hours of the botanical garden of Fort Bragg (where really, there is nothing else to see...). And then the long and winding road continued until we decided to stop at one of the really many, many beaches and walk around a bit. What a wonderful idea! All in all, the coast North of Mendicino really is a copy of Big Sur, but a lot less people. We have to remember this for the next trip of this area, probably in 16 years or so... Or maybe we can still read this blog in our next lives. Whatever.
Anyhow, the even longer and more winding road took us back up to highway one. An elderly lady found it important enough to wave us to the side of the road to let us know we really are doing a good job driving down this beautiful road.
Eventually, we arrived at Garbageville (Garberville, as the maps call it), the Marihuana Capital of the world, which was depicted as a rather large town in the map so we thought there just might be a supermarket here. Hm. Well, someting like that we actually found and stocked up on supplies, until we headed through the Avenue of the Giants to our Campground which we had reserved that morning.
A fun evening with a lot of healthy food (skones, cookies, wine...) closed a day which was spent a lot inside the van at 20 MPH... Tomorrow the redwoods are waiting, so time to hit the sack!